Atiku and Obi have sought the court’s permission to inspect the 2023 election materials.
Glamtush reports that the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi have asked the Presidential Election Court (PEC) in Abuja to allow them to inspect materials used for the February 25 election.
Their request is contained in two ex-parte motions they filed at the PEC secretariat at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.
Both motions, with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and two others as respondents, have been listed for hearing on Friday.
While Atiku filed his own on March 1, Obi’s motion was filed the next day.
Both applications were predicated on Section146 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, Paragraph 47 (1, 2 &3) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, as well as under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court as referenced by Section 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Obi, in his application that was moved by his team of lawyers led by Mr Alex Ejesieme, SAN, sought six principal reliefs.
Atiku’s lawyer, Adedamola Faloku, sought seven prayers from the tribunal.
Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents in its custody that were used for the presidential election.
They maintained that the requested documents would aid their petition against the outcome of the presidential contest that was declared in favour of Tinubu.
The two candidates rebuffed the gesture of conciliation made by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, who in his acceptance speech after he was declared the winner of the poll on Wednesday, asked them to support him in the task of building the nation.
Atiku and Obi spoke at separate news conferences in Abuja on Thursday.
